Synopsis

"We're going to launch a manga magazine!"

A team of girls with zero experience in manga editing are off and running toward their dream of creating the biggest manga magazine in Japan! They seem to do nothing but run into problems and failures... But still they're working hard every day!

No. Mangirl has nothing to do with hermaphrodites. I’m assuming the title is the only reason you even checked this anime out, so might as well get that out of the way first.

A part of me feels that the studio who adapted Mangirl wanted to make something good. But they were screwed over by the company, who didn't have very high expectations for it, by only giving them 3 minutes per episode. I can't say I totally blame them though, because even when you don’t put its pitifully short air time into consideration, the concept itself of this anime has a number of flaws that prevent it from being anything memorable.

The premise of Mangirl is very unoriginal. A group of girls attempt to create a manga magazine without any kind of experience beforehand. Think K-On, but with a manga theme instead of a music theme. It’s not supposed to be a plot-driven show, but even then, it’s way too predictable. Any spoilers I give would hardly be shocking.

But even if the plot is somewhat clichéd, if there’s a good cast of characters to support the show, it can still be enjoyable. That doesn’t happen in Mangirl. Most of the characters hardly even have personalities, let alone development. I’m actually shocked by how flat they are. One character just randomly bursts in the middle of an episode for no reason and then is never seen again, yet she still appears in the OP. The only characters that have anything close to a personality are Hana and Aki, but they’re only a generic comedy duo. I wouldn’t be able to describe Tsumugi and Ringo, the other two “main” characters, even if I tried. One likes food, the other carries a stuffed bear, but that hardly counts as a personality. That’s like calling the fact that a character has blue eyes a personality trait. Even if this show was longer, I doubt the characters would be very original.

This brings us to our next issue in Mangirl. As I’ve said, each episode is only 3 minutes long. That is not enough time at ALL to tell anything that remotely resembles a story. The only shows that can still be good while being short are series with hardly any continuity. But Mangirl does, so the show progresses at a lightning fast pace. It tries to cram so much stuff into each episode. There were times I could hardly read the subtitles because they’d disappear before I could finish them.

Despite the (rather major) flaws in this show, I actually found it surprisingly enjoyable. The writing is well done. There were a lot of moments I thought were funny, particularly the episode where they go to Comiket. And when they summoned Sakamoto Ryoma’s spirit to recommend their manga, I almost died! At the same time though, I feel like the same jokes would be a lot funnier if the cast was replaced by characters from some other slice of life show.

The animation is pretty nice. There’s never any time when the characters look off-model. And the art work looks nice too. The fanservice is subtle, which is a good thing. The character designs are interesting, but I don't like how they are supposed to be college graduates, but look like teenage girls. It's probably because they wanted the show to be all moe and whatnot, but that could have still been pulled off even if they looked like adults.

The voice acting is decent. It’s mostly made up of new seiyuus. I think they do a good job with what they’re given. Aki’s voice particularly sticks out in my mind because she has a very unique voice. I wish all of them luck in their career. The music is average, and the OP will get stuck in your head for all the wrong reasons.

I really don’t want to say Mangirl is a horrible anime, because I enjoyed it a lot more than I probably should have, but it’s definitely not anything special. I would have rated it higher if it was the length of an actual show, but even then, both the plot and the characters are incredibly boring. At only 13 episodes, you can finish the show in less than an hour, so if you’re looking to kill time, then I guess this might be worth giving a shot.read more

This anime began airing in the Winter of 2013, and is thirteen episodes long. I generally don't watch anime that are under the standard 24 minutes long, but this one caught my eye even though it was just five minutes long. It was produced by Dogakobo and Earth Star Entertainment, who have also done Natsuyuki Rendezvous, the currently airing Majestic Prince, and Seiken no Blacksmith, which are all pretty good anime that I've seen.

I found the characters to be refreshing, and easy to relate to. The head editor was completely crazy, while the one with glasses seemed normal (most of the time). The comedy was pretty good, and had me laughing at alot of parts. Also, the opening was pretty catchy, and although I liked the animation and the characters, I felt it lacked development a little bit. I'm a scrooge for animation so this is mostly why I don't watch short anime, because their quality of animation is generally lower.

This plot has already been done by Bakuman, even though Mangirl! is a little different. My favorite episode was probably where they went to the comic store and they were sold out. The mangaka was also pretty funny when she was starving and her apartment was filled with trash because her assistant was on vacation. I do feel like this anime shows what it's like to be a manga editor and mangaka. It could be considered almost educational even, overlooking the tangents that the crazy characters go off on all the time.

A special is scheduled to air May 24th, for episode 14. I'll definitely be looking forward to watching these crazy characters after their success in the manga world.read more

Story - It doesn't have much of a clear plot, though that could be due to the episodes only being three minutes. I'd prefer things be explained a bit more so that it doesn't seem as completely random as it seemed to me.

Art - Pretty average. Nothing particularly unique about it.

Sound - Average.

Character - One thing I have to point out, is just how much Ringo looks like Ichigo Hoshimiya from Aikatsu. This is possibly coincidental, but who knows. The characters are a bit on the plain side, having seemingly no quirks I haven't seen before.

Enjoyment - Despite what I've said about the art, story, and characters, I did enjoy this series. Particularly the last episode, the ending was great.

Overall - I give it a six. I would have given it just a five, but that ending pushed me to six.

While it wasn't one of those animes I'd looked forward to new episodes of this year, it was a nice, entertaining anime to watch. A lot of people have complained about the three-minute episode time, but I for one enjoyed that about it. I have a ridiculously short attention span and I doubt I'd finish a single episode if the episodes weren't short.read more

The fictional lives of two series' characters are presented in these two hilarious anime series. Well, more than just that they're also involved with the manga industry in terms of creation fictional works related to manga.

The characters has little experience but are fascinated by the concept of making manga. As such, they just to pour in various ideas from their heads and create manga that people can enjoy. Mangirl is much of a short anime while Genshiken Nidaime has more of the character relationship development. However, they both have humor if you're looking for some comedy.

Both are about cute moe girls that are dedicated to accomplishing something (Publishing a manga magazine, forming a light music club, etc.) The characters and humor is similar too. Mangirl progresses at a lightning fast pace though, since each episode is only 3 minutes long.